Canada Becoming a Hotbed For Coveted PG Prospects

Move aside Steve Nash, lots of Canadians PG prospects are making names for themselves across Canada and the US now.

Good read courtesy of Luke Winn from Sports Illustrated talking about the up and coming PG prospects from Canada. Turning lots of heads down south which is great news. In the next 5 to 10 years we should see a many more Canadians playing in the NBA.

Joseph, a 6-foot-2, sweet-shooting point guard with an NBA future, has played the past two seasons at Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nev. He'll soon make a decision between Minnesota (where his brother, Devoe, who was recruited as a shooting guard, ran the point late last season), UNLV, Villanova, UConn and Texas. If Joseph were to choose the Longhorns, who desperately need a point guard, he'd join Canada's best big-man prospect in years, 6-9 Tristan Thompson, in their freshman class -- and potentially still be there when Canada's best prospect from the Class of 2011, Myck Kabongo, arrives.

Kabongo, a 6-2, five-star recruit, is considered the next elite Canadian point after Joseph, and currently plays for St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, N.J. The trend has been for Canada's best talent to relocate to the states to develop -- Joseph, Kabongo and the country's best 2009 point guard, Junior Cadougan, who missed most of his freshman season at Marquette after rupturing an Achilles, followed that route. But the prospect who's actually been given the "best since Nash" label is still at a normal secondary school in Canada: Holland Landing, Ontario's Kevin Pangos, arguably the country's top 2012 recruit.

Pangos ran the point for one of the teams in the Jordan Brand International Game, which preceded the main All-Star game at Madison Square Garden and wasn't televised. His coach there was former Arizona guard (and assistant coach) Miles Simon, who, after Pangos beat him in a post-practice game of one-on-one last week, gave the following scouting report: "He's smart, deceptively quick, is a great shooter, and can finish with both hands -- an excellent player."

Simon said the talk about Nash was both natural and -- understandably -- unfair for a kid who's just 17. Mark Bayne, an Ontario-based Nike basketball rep who helped select Canadians for the Jordan game, said the Nash comparison is there, in part, because it's easy. "He's around the same height as Nash, same weight, can push the ball, has great court vision, is a pure point guard," Bayne said, "so that's what people in Canada are going to say."